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Blood Drops #1

10/22/2024

Back in April of this year, I submitted my first piece in a long while. It was a nonfiction piece that was sent to Memento Mori Ink. In complete transparency it was a requested piece, so submitting it might be a stretch, though it could have still been rejected. I also sent a story to a contest around the same time. The story didn’t win, but it was nice to send a story out with hopes it would get published. 

In May, I sent two pieces to Lisa Vasquez for Napalm Psalms. I knew only one would get picked but I wanted her to have a choice. She chose the better of the two and one of my favorite psychological pieces titled, Duality. I sent one story out in June that was ultimately rejected.

Sending out those five pieces created an itch I haven’t had in a long, long time. So, in July I set out to submit thirty-one stories, one for each day of the month. It was a lot of work, but I managed to meet my goal. That put me at a total of thirty-six stories submitted on the year. Umm … I haven’t submitted thirty-one total stories combined since 2011. 

Let me tell you, the rejections rolled in. I mean, seriously. I received thirteen rejections in the span of two weeks, almost one a day. It was disheartening, but I knew this would happen, Then I received an acceptance for the Weird Wide Web’s podcast for my story, She’s A Vampire, I’m A Hobo. When I heard the story (done by Lindsey Goddard) I got really excited. 

Since then, I have really dug my heels in, trying to find places for my work. There is one very big problem, though: I’m not really a horror writer anymore. Sure, I write some darker words on dark, real life subjects, but I don’t write what I feel is stereotypical horror anymore. I’ve experimented with different styles and genres (like mystery, romance and literary, as well as poetry).

Even though trying to find paying markets is a little frustrating, I find I’m enjoying sending stories out. I’ve also been keeping track of all of the submissions in a spreadsheet. So, here are the latest statistics on the year:

Submissions: 64

Responses: 45

Rejections: 32 (bummer)

Acceptances: 13 (Awesome sauce)

Acceptance Rate: 28.9%

The acceptance rate is really good. I was hoping for something between 20%-25%, so I’m happy with that number. Thirteen acceptances is more than I have had in any year since 2010, when thirty-three stories were accepted. 

Of those thirteen acceptances, seven have already been published. Below are links to those seven stories. Please take a few minutes to check them out. Some of them are free to read, others are parts of books or magazines, so, yeah, there’s a purchase price.

I’m A Hobo, She’s A Vampire at The Weird Wide Web Podcast. 

The Hook of Relatability at Memento Mori Ink Magazine (Nonfiction)

The Scarring at Exquisite Death

Darkness at Dark Descent, Whispers From Beyond Volume III

Treats at the Aver Residence at Wilhelm Presents Frightening Tales

Wave at Micromance (yes, this is a love story)

Duality at Napalm Psalms 

Thank you for stopping by. Also, thank you for taking the time to look over some of those stories. I’m excited to be putting out work again.

If you have a few extra seconds, please take the time to like the post, leave a comment and share it with your friends. I greatly appreciate it.

Until we meet again, my friends, be kind to one another.

A.J.

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Climbing the Wall

10/06/2024

A couple years ago, I hit a wall. Not literally, but definitely figuratively. The wall was tall and thick and made of all sorts of things, the biggest of those being heavy bricks called DOUBT. The mortar between those bricks was called DISCOURAGEMENT. I tried climbing the wall, but fell several times. Man, bruised ego, bruised confidence and just bruises happen when you fall from a wall you thought you could climb. Me and Humpty Dumpty were scrambled at the same time. 

For a while, I quit climbing the wall. It wasn’t worth it. Then one day I found myself standing at the wall again. I looked at it. Man, it was so high up. I couldn’t see the top. Looking at it was even more discouraging. I thought about climbing it again, but the effort really wasn’t there. I ended up slinking away, leaving all my climbing gear at the base of that wall.

At the beginning of the year, I stood back at the wall. I looked at it hard. Again, it looked so tall and so daunting and I thought ‘this just isn’t going to work.’ I walked away from it again. But this time I found myself not getting far enough from the wall so I couldn’t see it. Every day, I saw that wall of DOUBT and DISCOURAGEMENT. 

Instead of shutting my window and pulling the curtains, I did something I hadn’t done in years. I submitted a story somewhere. Granted, it was a submission that was by invitation, but it was still a submission. It got accepted. Hmm … Then I sent something to a contest and it didn’t get accepted. Still, the rejection letter was nice enough. Then I signed on with Memento Mori Ink to write a piece for them. 

The wall suddenly had a few cracks in it. I picked up my climbing gear from the base of he wall. 

In July, I decided to send out 31 stories in 31 days. I’ll talk about those stats in another post, but a few acceptance letters (along with quite a few rejections) made me think I could climb the wall and maybe tear it down one day.

With that said, part of climbing the wall is understanding some things about me, my writing and my desires. Do I really want to climb that wall? Yes, I do. Part of that is getting back to regular posts with Type AJ Negative. I used to posts pieces every Tuesday, then that got sporadic, at best, when I fell off the wall. Bruises will do that to you. 

This post is not to tell you what’s coming, about publications or any of those things. It’s just to tell you that Tuesday post on Type AJ Negative is a thing again. Some of those posts are going to be interviews with folks. Others will be about progress in climbing the wall. Others will be my stats for a given month (and overall). Other posts will be about the journey, some of those things I posted on my now shut down Patreon (damn, that wall).

If you’ve stuck with me all these years since I opened Type AJ Negative (twelve as of July), thank you. Come see me on Tuesdays. If you’re new, I hope it’s worth your time to be here.

Until we meet again, my friends, be kind to one another.

A.J. 

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Duality and Napalm Psalms

Last week I posted about the magazine Memento Mori Ink coming in August. You can read about that here: It’s Coming. My article The Hook of Relatability will be in it. 

But that’s not all …

My story, Duality, will appear in the collection, Napalm Psalms (by Lisa Vasquez). I am honored to be one of the guest writers for Lisa. This collection comes out sometime in the fall. 

Duality is based off the song Murder in This Town by my friend, Donald Merckle. He sent me a copy of the song last year while I was in the hospital with the belief I could probably write a story based off of it. After listening to it several times, I knew he was right. Duality is about a guy who deals with hallucinations … and something far more sinister. It’s a killer story, pun intended. 

One other thing, I have started submitting stories again, something I stopped doing for a long while. We’ll see how that goes and I will update y’all with the progress.

Until we meet again, my friends, be kind to one another.

A.J.